1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to games of chance and, more particularly, is concerned with a dice set and method for selecting a set of integers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lotteries are presently very popular across the United States, especially those games in which a player selects a small set of numbers or integers from a predetermined large sequence of integers. For example, in the lottery game of one state the highest integer of the predetermined sequence might be 36, whereas in the lottery game of another state the highest integer of the sequence might be 44. The player is typically required to pick a set of six different integers from the predetermined sequence of integers.
Different devices for assisting players in integer selection, for playing lotteries and other games of chance, are known in the prior art. Some representative prior art devices are those disclosed in Messina et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,465,278, Crippen U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,487, Dery U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,190 and Levine U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,540, and foreign patents to Vaterlaus (Swiss 588,254), Becker (German 1,059,816), viala (French 2,421,650), Ortiz (French 2,442,644), Schlopsna (German 2,903,796) and Filmosto-Projektion (German 3,509,345). The U.S. patents to Crippen and Dery and the foreign patents to Vaterlaus, Becker, Viala, Ortiz and Schlopsna disclose different dice sets. The dice of all sets but those of Vaterlaus and Dery have different non-cubic face arrangements. The latter two have cubic face arrangements but with different integer patterns. In all dice sets, each individual die contains more than one integer.
Use of dice in selecting a set of lottery integers would seem to have an inherent appeal to a large segment of lottery players for a number of reasons. On the one hand, many lottery players are probably attracted by the gambling element of lotteries. These players are familiar and comfortable with using dice in other forms of gambling. On the other hand, other lottery players may be responding to the recreational element of lotteries. These players are familiar and comfortable with the use of dice in number and turn selection in many recreational games.
Also, dice have several advantages over other methods of integer selection, such as playing cards, which might be used. Shaking and rolling of dice probably can be accomplished repetitively more quickly than shuffling and drawing cards from a deck. Dice probably are capable of selecting a number in a more random and objective way and are less susceptible to a player inadvertently biasing the selection process than if playing cards are employed.
As the diversity of prior art dice sets of the above-identified patents demonstrates, much thought and effort has gone into devising a dice set that will accomplish the dual objective of permitting the player to have fun while, at the same time, objectively and randomly selecting a set of lottery integers or numbers.
However, the main drawbacks of the above-described dice sets are that they are overly complex in appearance, unnecessarily complicated to use, and too expensive to fabricate. Consequently, a different approach is needed to make the use of dice more appealing and practical in the selection of lottery numbers or integers.